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Summer Rivalry
''Summer Rivalry ''is the twelfth story in the Middle School Experience series. It chronicles the summer vacations of the girls. It’s finally summer vacation, a time for fun, sun, and friendship. Unfortunately, it is a time for rivalries. Chloe and Arabella’s friendship is put to the test after Chloe scares off Arabella’s new friend, and Alex is forced to work with her former best friend at day camp. Will the summer end up being a bummer? Summary Arabella, Chloe, Leah, Ellie, and Alex meet up at the community center to talk about their summer plans. Leah, Alex, and Ellie plan to work as counselors at their church for Vacation Bible School. Arabella plans to have a summer romance with Robbie. She also mentions wanting to go to Six Flags with her friend from gymnastics, Susan, but Chloe acts strangely when she hears that. Later, Arabella goes to the park with her mom and her brother. Arabella sees Robbie, Freddy, and Jessie at the park and they decide to play a game of soccer together. They decide to play a boys vs. girls game; the girls win. After they win, they decide to get ice cream, and Arabella decides to spend some alone time with Robbie. She talks to Robbie about her summer plans, but Robbie informs her that he won't be spending a lot of time in town because he and Freddy are going to camp in Virginia. Arabella is worried that Robbie will find someone else (since the camp is co-ed) and is sad that her summer plans have been dashed. The next day, Arabella goes to gymnastics practice, but is still upset about Robbie leaving for camp. She confides to Susan about this, and Susan suggests that Arabella devote her summer to bonding with her friends. Arabella decides to include her school friends in their plans and begins to have hope for the summer. Arabella calls Chloe and tells her about her plans for the summer, but when she mentions Susan, Chloe begins to feel sour about it. She is jealous of Susan and feels like ever since Arabella joined the gymnastics class, she hasn't had time to hang out with her anymore. She also thinks that Susan cannot be trusted based on the events from ''Break a Leg. '' On the first day of Vacation Bible School, Alex, Leah, and Ellie are excited to be working with fifth graders. They meet up with the head of VBS, Kimberly. They learn that they might have to work with high schoolers, which doesn't please Ellie and Alex. Kimberly informs them that Leah and Ellie are working with fifth graders, but Alex has to work with first graders, due to there being a lot of young campers that year. Alex isn't happy, but she decides to deal with it. When she goes to her classroom, she meets one of the adult counselor, Rachel, and her son Ian, who is in their class. Some more children arrive to the classroom, but they are either rude or they begin crying. The other adult counselor, Lucia, arrives, and Alex introduces herself to her. One of the youth counselors is a teenage boy named Justin, who Alex doesn't want to work with because he is a boy. Rachel notices that the fifth volunteer in their group is late and worries that she might not show up. When it is time to go to the chapel, Alex tries to get the kids to line up, but they don't listen to her. The fifth volunteer finally arrives, and Alex learns with dismay that it is Marylin, her former friend and current nemesis. Justin is able to get the kids to line up and the kids walk to the chapel. There, Alex and Marylin end up sitting next to each other. Marylin complains that she is only doing this because the rest of her friends were on vacation and her mom wouldn't let her go to Paris with Clarissa. At the chapel, two teenagers put on a skit to rally up the kids, but Alex and the majority of her campers find it stupid. Alex notices that her campers don't seem interested in being at VBS, and begins to think that signing up to be a counselor was a mistake. As the day goes on, Alex notices that Marylin is acting like she is too cool to be a counselor. When Alex is allowed to take a break from counseling, she meets up with Leah and Ellie and tells them about her experience. Her friends notice that Marylin is flirting with Justin. Alex sees Kimberly in the room and walks up to her in an attempt to switch into the fifth graders' group. However, Kimberly tells her that she has to give the first graders a chance and reveals that she purposely put Alex and Marylin in a group together because she thought they were friends. Marylin reveals that she had been listening to their conversation, which angers Alex. Arabella decides to have a mini outing with Chloe, Susan, Jessie, and Gail as part of her plans to make the most of her summer. Arabella is excited for her school friends to meet Susan, who is the last to arrive to her house. Susan is excited to meet Arabella's friends, especially Chloe. However, when she introduces herself to Chloe, Chloe brings up the incident where Susan caused Arabella to break her leg, and Susan is surprised and hurt by Chloe's rudeness and begins to assume that Arabella, who is silent, hasn't gotten over the incident. On the car ride to the Promenade, an outdoor mall, Gail and Jessie try to include Susan in their conversations, but Chloe purposely brings up things that Susan cannot relate to. When they arrive, the group decides to go to Belk. While there, Arabella reveals to Susan and Jessie that she had sent five letters to Robbie and confides that she is afraid that Robbie will start dating a girl at camp when he doesn't respond to the letters. Chloe shows the girls two dresses that she likes, and Jessie suggests that Susan try on one of the dresses, but Chloe insults Susan. Arabella tells Gail that she is upset that Chloe and Susan are not getting along, but Gail tries to be optimistic and tells her that she should be glad that the rest of the girls are being friendly to Susan. The girls decide to go to a restaurant. Chloe is still acting cliquey and mean towards Susan, and Susan snaps. She yells and flips the bird at Chloe before walking outside to meet her older brother. At gymnastics, Susan refuses to speak to Arabella. After practice, Arabella attempts to talk to Susan. Susan accuses Arabella of siding with Chloe and for faking their friendship after the broken leg incident. Upset that Susan is mad at her, Arabella decides to go to Chloe's house and talk to her about what had happened yesterday. Chloe is very unsympathetic about Arabella's feelings, and Arabella snaps and accuses her of being two-faced. Chloe gets defensive and tells her that she only wanted her to start hanging out with her school friends more again. Arabella reveals that the only reason that she thought of this get-together was because Robbie was going away all summer. Chloe realizes that Arabella hadn't talked to her about the situation with Robbie at all, and when she learns that Arabella had talked to Susan about it first, she ends their friendship. After a rough start at VBS, Alex begins to enjoy herself; she gets to know her counselors more and begins bonding with some of the little kids. However, Marylin continues to act rude to the counselors and continues flirting with Justin. Leah and Ellie tease Alex about Justin, but Alex brushes them off. Before camp starts, Alex and Justin talk about their lives, and Justin mentions that he has a girlfriend (who is one of the teenagers acting out the skits) and Alex reveals to him that she and Marylin used to be friends. Marylin walks in on them, and begins to get jealous that Alex is talking to Justin. While the group walks to the chapel, Marylin asks Alex to ask Justin out for her. Alex brushes her off and reminds her that they aren't friends. As a result, Marylin refuses to participate in anything and begins kicks up her flirting a notch. At the end of day, the group goes outside to play on an inflatable water slide. While Alex is taking care of the campers, Justin decides to socialize with a few of his friends before helping Alex with an unruly camper. Marylin, who had disappeared from the group for a while, reappears, wearing nothing but a bikini top and daisy dukes, shocking Alex, the teenagers, and the counselors. Alex almost feels guilty about not helping Marylin get Justin, but decides that her former friend deserves to be humiliated. Rachel demands that Marylin go and change. When the rest of the group returns to the classroom, they notice that Rachel and Marylin (who had changed into her regular clothes) are already there, neither looking very happy. Arabella's summer is not going the way she had planned. Susan still refuses to speak to her, and Arabella had ended up avoiding most of her friends in order to avoid seeing Chloe. She is also depressed about Robbie not responding to her letters and believes that Robbie isn't as into her as she thought. Meanwhile, Chloe is hanging out more with Daphne, Regina, and Maryann. They sympathize with Chloe, but they tell her that they want the conflict between her and Arabella to end. Regina convinces Chloe to talk to Arabella, and Chloe decides to go to Arabella's gymnastics class to apologize. At the end of gymnastics practice, Arabella attempts to talk to Susan again. While she tries to do that, Chloe arrives, and at first, Susan is not pleased. Chloe apologizes to Susan for bringing up the broken leg incident and for trying to ruin her friendship with Arabella. Susan apologizes to Chloe for her rude comments. Arabella convinces Susan that she is not bitter about the broken leg incident and apologizes for being a doormat and apologizes to Chloe for not listening to her about her time management. The girls decide to be friends again, and Chloe and Susan decide to give each other another chance. The Fourth of July ends up being the last day of VBS. Alex is sad that camp is ending, but she is glad to attend a Fourth of July ceremony with the campers, their parents, and the counselors. Marylin attends the party with the Popular Sensations, who had come back from Europe. Alex and her friends reminisce on their time as counselors, and Alex tells her sister Katelyn to enjoy her childhood, since Katelyn's last year of VBS is coming up soon. Alex and her friends decide to get hot dogs and walk towards the grill, where Justin is in charge of. Alex introduces Leah, Ellie, and Katelyn to Justin, and they all meet his girlfriend, Cheyenne. The Popular Sensations walk over to them so Marylin can introduce them to Justin. Leah tries to tell them that Justin is taken, but they ignore her. Marylin asks Justin to hang out with her and her friends after he finishes grilling hot dogs, and Alex decides to finally introduce Marylin to Cheyenne. Cheyenne reveals that she is Justin's girlfriend, and Marylin storms away angrily. Justin reveals that he was onto Marylin the entire time, but didn't know how to reject her politely. When Alex and her friends walk away, Marylin and the Popular Sensations confront them, and Marylin threatens to get revenge on Alex for ruining her chances with Justin. Alex blows her off and walks away, shocking her friends. Ellie remarks that Alex is maturing now that she can confront the Popular Sensations without fighting or getting revenge. Alex convinces her friends to sing and dance with her and the other counselors for a performance at the party. Alex is glad that her counseling experience had gone well. Arabella decides to have a slumber party with all of her friends, where she sees that Chloe and Susan are getting along better than ever. Arabella is still upset that Robbie hadn't responded to her letters, but she knows that it won't upset her too much as long as she has her friends by her side. Characters (in order of appearance) * Arabella Wilson * Chloe Winters * Leah Harrison * Alex Sanders * Ellie Jackson * Irene Wilson * Robbie James * Jessie Sanchez * Freddy Hamilton * Susan Duncan * Carrie Sanders * Katelyn Sanders * Kimberly Martin * Rachel Porter * Lucia Vitacco * Justin Beard * Marylin Roberts * Gail Edwards * Taylor Wilson * Juliana Gilman * Lauren Reed * Claudia Chin-Soto * Eliza Cantrell * Chris * Daphne Carson * Maryann Chang * Regina Daniels * Cheyenne * Clarissa Simpson * Gabby Evans Trivia *This book was rewritten four times. First edition, 2008. Fourth edition, September 2017. *Originally, Arabella and Chloe were going to drag their school friends into their conflict about Susan, but the creator thought that idea was stupid and babyish. Also, the subplot with Alex, Leah, and Ellie at VBS were not in the first three editions. Category:Stories